BIOL 131. Animal Communication

This seminar will examine animal communication from a cross-disciplinary perspective with a focus on the evolution and physiology of communication systems and an emphasis on understanding the primary literature. Weekly readings and student-led discussion of the primary literature are modeled after a journal club course in graduate school and allow students to develop an in-depth understanding of scientific critique. Engaged participation in these “crit sessions” provides students with the skills and confidence to decompose complex scientific studies, extract the relevant results, and evaluate the rigor of experimental design. This class takes an explicitly quantitative approach to understanding animal behavior.
Prerequisite: Completion of BIOL 001 and BIOL 002, or their equivalents; BIOL 030; or with permission of instructor.
Recommended: A course in statistics (e.g. STAT 011).
Natural sciences and engineering.
1 credit.
Eligible for COGS
Catalog chapter: Biology
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/biology

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